Woven Together
by Miusiki
Summary: "Will we ever see each other?"  "Sure we will"  Chihiro's time in the Spirit World helped her take charge in her life and be brave. Too bad she can't remember any of it.  But after so much time around the fantastic, is anything the same?
1. Comfort

Woven Together

Chihiro stared down the train, not really looking at anything. Her right hand gripped a ring that hung from the ceiling, her left held her school bag. She watched as people swayed back and forth with the gentle rocking of the train as the world whipped by past the windows. She felt the same nervousness she did when she transferred middle schools, but she was able to put that away and put on a brave face. Chihiro hadn't felt like she fit in for three years, ever since her family had moved to the house near a train station. She watched as people shuffled groggily onto the train, or worriedly leaped off the train, late for some appointment. The train was the only time she felt calm. It was strangely the closest thing she could call home. Ever since her father had moved her family for work, she'd felt like an alien in her own house. Her own mother said she'd never been the same since they moved. Even so, she enjoyed watching the world whiz by on the train, and feel the gentle, steady rocking under her feet. She liked watching people get off the train and meet with relatives or lovers. It was cozy, and familiar. Chihiro's mind was whipped back into reality as the train reached her stop. The train stops always sounded unusual to her, but it didn't matter. The interesting thing was the ride itself. She stepped off the train and onto the platform, watching as other people did the same. Chihiro sighed and left the platform and comfortable familiarity of the train for the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.

Chihiro didn't much care for her walk to school. It was eerie, and full of back-alleyways. About the only thing she liked about it was the artificial creek that she passed along the way, it seemed familiar like the train. To be frank, the world around Chihiro seemed dead. The people around her were small and boring, obsessed with their boring little lives. Like drones. Even when they laughed they seemed to be devoid of life to her. The only place she found things to be alive was when she cleaned rivers of junk and debris, and it wasn't the people she volunteered with -they were dead too- it was the river when she was done. At one point Chihiro could swear that she could hear the water speaking to her and thanking her, but she never told anyone. She knew they would call her crazy.

Chihiro rested her head on her hand and drummed her pencil on her paper. She'd given up on taking notes long ago, preferring to let her mind wander in class while her eyes followed her teacher. She remembered once embarrassing herself by looking out the window rather than keep up the false pretense that she was actually interested in what her instructor was saying, and she had to stand outside in the hall while passerby ridiculed her. "Ooh look, the princess was put in the hallway! What an insult!" they would say. She couldn't help it that she didn't like her peers. They were so BORING. Always talking about what was on TV or which idol was hot. They didn't care for their surroundings or they wouldn't pay attention to the way the world moved around them. It was frustrating and aggravating and made her want to shake them and scream at them "Don't you SEE? Can't you think about ANYTHING? Kami, you're all PIGS! As dead as coal!"

She remembered once trying to tell her parents about a time in the summer when they first moved into their house. It was alive with bright colors and jewels and monsters. Fantastical dragons and soothing steam everywhere. They told her she had to have been dreaming. That was when she started noticing the deadness in the world. How everything seemed to just plod along, and she couldn't help but be tugged into the drone of it.

She ate her bento outside on the roof. Even when it was raining cats and dogs she ate on the roof, just sometimes in the doorway so she stayed dry. It was the best place to see the sky. The sky was NOT dead. It was always changing and bright, even on rainy days. And yet, it seemed to be missing something. Every day, Chihiro would make a point of being outside, just to watch the sky. She realized later that she was _looking_ for something. There was always something that belonged in the sky, but she could never find it. Much like today. Today she sat, eating her bento and looking at the sky, waiting for something to flash across it and complete it again. But what was it? What was she expecting, up in the heavens among the clouds?

"Hey there." said a voice behind her. Chihiro turned, surprised that someone wasn't calling her "princess". She raised her eyebrow. It was a boy, a little taller than her. He seemed dead like the rest of them though and she quickly forgot what he looked like.

"What're you doing up here all by yourself?" he asked. At least he seemed curious. Slightly less dead than the others, who had given up on her long ago.

"Waiting." Chihiro replied, looking back at the sky. Maybe she needed binoculars to see it?

"What're you waiting for?" he asked. Chihiro turned around to ask sarcastically if he made a point to wasting his time, when her eyes widened in surprise. He was gone. Only mildly disturbed, she went back to sky watching until the lunch bell rang. She got up and went back to class.

For the first time in a long time, someone left a lingering impression on her. She remembered her childhood friend, but they fell out of contact when she moved. Chihiro found that Lily had become a boring drone too, even when the other girl was happy to talk to her on the phone. The flowers Lily gave her as a goodbye present had wilted long ago, but she kept the card. For some reason the card was important, and she always protected it and made sure it was safe and hidden. Thinking about this strange boy though was different. Unlike everyone else, he wasn't bored. He seemed… familiar somehow. _Maybe I volunteered with him at some point…_ she thought to herself. _Or maybe he went to elementary school with me…_

She scratched her head, trying to think about it as she did her class work. She tried to remember his face when she walked to the train station. She tried to remember his voice while she was on the train. All that stuck in her mind though was what he asked her:

"What are you waiting for?"


	2. Disrupt

Chapter Two

She looked out along the train station. More people shuffled along in the station, like shades of what people should be.

Chihiro looked at the watch on her wrist. _The train should be coming along soon._

Sure enough, the bullet train eased to a squealing halt in front of her, and she got into the train.

"Well, what d'you know, the _Princess _decided to grace us with her presence!" came a sneering voice. It was one of the boys from her school.

So much for the train ride.

Chihiro stepped off the platform and onto the train boredly. Her mother always told her that if someone bullied her, just to ignore them. She leaned against a metal pole and closed her eyes as the world whipped by outside the train. She was dimly aware of her schoolmate's taunting voice and thought she'd just leave well enough alone…

Until she felt a sharp YANK on her hair. Chihiro's eyes snapped open.

"What're you doing?" she asked sharply.

"Oh, so you DO speak. I'm so HONORED!"

Puuull…

Chihiro felt her hair band come loose and her straight brown locks came tumbling around her face. Her eyes widened in fear, and she puzzled to herself why she should be afraid.

"Give that back!" she said, reaching for it, but her schoolmate was much taller than she, and held it over her head.

"Why? Is a hair band so precious that the Princess can't live without it?" he taunted, dangling it, right over her reach.

"I need it!" Chihiro jumped and tried to get the hair band back. Something was unsettling her, and for some reason the hair band was going to fix it. Her heart hammered in her ears as she tried to get her precious hair tye back, but to no avail.

The lights on the train flickered.

For a small amount of time, a mere fraction of a moment, the whole train changed. The sky was dark, and the scenery around the train was all murky countryside. Chihiro felt her breath catch in her throat and she looked at the rest of the train. The seats were empty and worn leather, rather than the scratchy and fuzzy cotton seats. The floor was made of wood rather than the grimy plastic. And it was empty. More than anything, the train was empty except for her and then, a strange dark man wearing a mask. He turned to her and a second mouth opened in his throat and he let out a cry of surprise.

Then it was gone, and Chihiro was back in the grubby city bullet train. She lost her balance and crashed into her schoolmate with a cry. They toppled to the ground. Somehow the train was colder and darker than before.

The train's intercom announced her stop coming up and Chihiro grabbed her hair band and got off the train.

"Thanksalotbye!" she said quickly as she left. Chihiro quickly tied her hair back up and ran from the train. She'd never been so spooked in her life.

But she still couldn't remember the boy's face.

Chihiro was up late studying. Not that it was particularly calming, but it was easier to think about her geometry than to worry about what happened on the train. She didn't even have the heart to stargaze. Her parents called a half-hearted goodnight and she responded in turn, and then she got up and paced.

_Why am I still spooked? _She wondered as she paced. Chihiro threw open the window and looked at the sky. In her mind the face of the man in the mask floated before her eyes.

Suddenly another image invaded her brain. It was the image of the boy from earlier that afternoon.

"What are you waiting for?"

She could remember his face, but couldn't associate a name with it. He had bright green eyes and soft, dove-gray hair, and it looked like he actually took the time to take care of it, unlike other boys she couldn't really name. She remembered his peach-colored skin too, with a small tint of green in the shadows. She could remember he had a soft sort of growl to the way he talked, not threatening, but certainly enough to make her remember. And someone who could do that was rare.

_I gotta see him again. Maybe not right now, but soon. I have to know why I remember him, rather than the face of the person who even _harassed _me today._

Chihiro went to sleep uneasily.

Water. TONS of it. It's everywhere and it's cool and refreshing. It swirls around Chihiro and whirls through her hair. She can feel small currents against her face, as natural as wind. She's holding onto something for dear life, and yet she's perfectly calm as whatever she's holding onto squirms and slithers beneath her. Strange green grass sways annd blows around in the water. She can hear it all around.

Then it is nothing but the green of a field. Grass and rocks carved into strange figures as far as the eye can see. She can hear her own voice, yet it is the voice of a child.

"_Will we ever see each other?"_

Chihiro woke up to the sound of her alarm clock.

_What was THAT all about? _she thought as she looked at her shaking hands. Her fingers hurt from gripping something so tightly. She took a deep breath and let it out again, and started getting ready for school. As soon as she put on her hair band the dream vanished from her mind, she could barely recall going to sleep.

Chihiro hastily ate breakfast as she ran to school. She knew that the boy from the other day went to her school. She looked around the train. She could make out even less about the people around her. People came, and went. She focused on the scenery instead, and kept her mind locked on the boy's face.

_I can remember. I can remember!_


	3. Memories

Chapter 3

Chihiro burst through the door of the English room, completely out of breath. She looked around for the silvery-eyed boy from the other day and then swore (in English) when she didn't see him. She stopped and looked at her own reflection in a window. She could see herself, but everyone else looked pretty much the same as each other. She looked like one of them, but she could tell herself from other high schoolers. Chihiro kept searching all through the classes, until suddenly she was caught by the shoulder.

It was a teacher.

Chihiro squinted and tried desperately to make out what made this teacher different from everybody else, trying to ingrain his face into her mind. She barely heard what he had to say, but it was just generic teacher lingo, probably spouting something about how she shouldn't be running in the halls, and how she should be in class. His tone suddenly went sharp and Chihiro tried to back up and get out of his face, but the teacher's grip was strong.

"I'm sorry! Let me go! I'll go back to class!" she tried desperately, but it was as if neither of them could really distinguish the other one. Chihiro stopped struggling and noticed that the teacher hadn't stopped talking and lecturing her. She was walked back to class, more confused than before.

"He can't see me." she wondered aloud. Her classmates made shushing noises and she fell silent. Chihiro strained to listen to everything going on around her. She could tell that everyone was speaking plain Japanese, but the instant they said anything Chihiro couldn't remember what they said.

_This is bad… _she thought to herself worriedly. She kept her eyes on her paper and copied down the writing on the board to make sense of it.

_Okay, I can read my own notes, I can remember my own thoughts and what I've said, but everyone else just fades into the background…_

Before she knew it, the lunch bell was ringing. Chihiro sprang to her feet and sprinted to the roof.

To her relief, the boy from the other day was waiting for her. She got a good look at him, and his image burned brightly in her mind like the sun.

He stood much taller than her, with broad shoulders and lively but pale skin. His eyes were a shining sort of gray, almost like they were metallic. He had soft contours to his face, nothing particularly pronounced or sharp about his face, though it was starting to become more masculine. His limbs were long and awkward, like he still hadn't quite grown into them. Even so, he was graceful, as if his every action was meant to be.

Chihiro fell to her knees out of breath as she realized she could remember him. He heard her bag hit the ground and turned to look at her.

"Took you long enough." he said simply. His voice was smooth, but not silky. More like a rock from a riverbed.

Chihiro shook her head and caught her breath.

"Wha- What are you doing here?" she managed.

"I was waiting for you." he said. There was a small smile behind his eyes that seemed so familiar.

"Oh." she said. "Did you need me?"

"No. I just wanted to see you. Why didn't you come looking for me before now?" he asked, leaning against the iron fence. Chihiro shifted her legs around so she was more comfortable.

"I did." she protested. "I just spent the morning sprinting trying to find you. I would have gotten detention if I hadn't shown up really early so I could find you."

"That's not what I mean." the boy said, his eyes going slightly steely. He cut an intimidating figure when his expression changed like that.

"What do you mean?" she asked, even more confused.

"I mean if I hadn't FOUND you yesterday-" suddenly he stopped and looked at her face. Suddenly he was in front of her with his hand on her chin, tilting her head up so he could see her better. He looked in her eyes searchingly.

"Oh no… You've forgotten everything, haven't you?" he asked. Chihiro jerked her head out of his grip, outraged.

"Look pal, I don't know who you are, but it is rude to lay your hands on strangers. And for your information, there is NOTHING WRONG with my memory." she said hotly. Chihiro turned and reached for the door.

"Sen."

Chihiro stopped. She _knew_ that name. It used to be HERS. She turned and looked at the boy questioningly.

"How do you know that name?" she asked, her voice dripping with cold anger. The boy looked sad for a few seconds, and then he straightened up, completely serious.

"I have known you since you were very small."


	4. Names

Chapter Four

"I have known you since you were very small."

The words echoed in her mind as if it were an empty cavern. She heard them again, though in a kinder tone.

When did that happen?

Visions of water crashed through her mind, cold, crushing water.

Then, like the water, they were all gone with a quick flash of pain. The colors red and white flashed behind her eyes very quickly and were gone.

Chihiro blinked, and found that the gray-eyed boy was patting her face, trying to wake her up.

"Are you okay? Wake up." he said. Concern was all over his face. She blinked stupidly. She looked around and noticed that she was on the ground, her arms hanging limp at her sides. The only thing holding her up was the bony hand of the boy.

"Can you remember your name?" he asked.

"It's Sen."

"No, not that one."

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. Do you still have your hair tie?"

Chihiro reached up and felt for it. Yup. It was still there.

"Why am I dizzy?" she asked. The boy frowned.

"You were about to say something and then you fell over. You hit your head pretty hard on the doorknob." He said. Come to think of it, her head DID hurt.

"Oh…" she reached up and felt the back of her head. She touched it too roughly and winced.

"Owwwwwww." she groaned and sat up holding her head.

"Can you remember your name?" he asked again.

"It's Se- I mean… Damn it… I had it a moment ago…" she said, rubbing her sore head. Yup. She was going to have a nasty bump. It was starting to bother her. What else had she forgotten?

"Relax. You'll be okay, but you HAVE to remember your name." he said.

"It's… It's… URGH!" she hit herself on the head trying to make herself remember, but that just made her crumple and put her head in her knees. She tried to keep her head together by squeezing it between her legs, and strangely enough, that was when she remembered her own name.

"It's Chihiro." she said, releasing her head. The headache came back with a vengeance though and she put it back between her knees.

"Good job." the boy said kindly. He rubbed her back gently. He had nice hands, and very cool, like a doctor's.

"I should go to the nurse's…" she said, trying to get up. For some reason the boy made her sit down again.

"Hey! What're you-"

"Let me see your eyes again." he said again in that commanding tone. Chihiro looked at him and took in his cool features. Other people would look plain and frankly boring, but the boy was different. He seemed so ALIVE.

The boy reached up to do something- maybe stroke her hair- and then pulled back as if he were burned. Looking at it closer, Chihiro could see that he WAS burned.

"Okay… It's not that…" he said calmly, massaging his steaming fingers. Chihiro's eyes widened.

"Are you okay? What burned you?" she asked. He smiled and patted her on her shoulder.

"It's alright. I'll be okay. You should get home, it's getting late, and you're looking a little pale." he said. He started standing up, and Chihiro's hands shot up and grabbed onto his shirt.

"Wait! Are you coming back? Please don't go away. I don't want to forget you." she said. Chihiro mentally kicked herself for being clingy, but she didn't want him to leave. She felt sure that she KNEW him, now that she'd been looking at him. She'd withstood headaches for less important things.

But he just smiled and simultaneously helped her to her feet while gently prying her hands off his shirt.

"It's okay Chihiro. I'll be back." he said. Much to her surprise, he hugged her.

It was a very reserved hug, even though it was warm. Chihiro closed her eyes instinctively, feeling his bony arms wrap around her softly.

In her mind she was surrounded by cool water. It wasn't crushing, but it was brushing against her skin almost tenderly.

When she opened her eyes again he was gone.

Chihiro woke up in her bed the next morning to her alarm clock. She sat up and looked around. There was a small day planner on her nightstand next to her alarm clock with a sticky note attached that said "read me". She peeled the note off and opened the planner, flipping to the day's date.

RIVER CLEANING.

Chihiro smiled. She liked river cleaning. It was peaceful and felt nice, and at the end the river thanked her. She got dressed and left, deciding to grab something at the bakery on her way.

Chihiro stood knee deep in a river that was polluted with junk. Soggy paper, soda cans, and Styrofoam littered the water. She fished it out with a net and then put it on a basket strapped to her back. Chihiro hummed a little tune as she worked. She stood up and looked as something pink floated past. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. It was gone, but she knew exactly what it was.

It was a little pink shoe.

Disturbed, Chihiro threw her basket onto the bank and dove after the shoe. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was still there somehow. All the practice cleaning rivers had turned her into an adept swimmer. She used powerful strokes and swam in the direction of the shoe as hard as she could. Faintly she could hear her fellow volunteers calling after her, but she ignored them. There was something important going on here, and she was going to find out what.

She swam and swam and swam, and then the river started getting deeper. Chihiro kicked with all her might, chasing the pink shoe. She felt the current pick up beneath her and she swam harder.

Then she felt something catch her ankle, and her swimming came to a floundering halt. Chihiro kicked and thrashed, trying to escape whatever was grabbing her, but it wouldn't let up at all. Something hit her on the head and she grabbed at it as she went under.

It was the shoe.

She knew it in an instant, she had shoes like these when she was much smaller. She remembered losing one in a river.

Then she remembered.

She DID know the boy.

She clawed her way to the surface and took a deep breath of air before letting it out in a yell:

"KOHAKUUUUUUU!"


End file.
